A filament winding device is a device that manufactures hollow containers such as pressure tanks or pipes on the basis of a filament winding method (see, for example, the Japanese Patent Application (Tokugan) No. 2007-34723 and the Japanese Patent Application Publication (Tokkai-Hei) No. 10-119138). The filament winding method manufactures products (pressure tanks or the like) by winding a fiber bundle around a mandrel (liner). The fiber bundle is made of, for example, a textile material formed using a textile material such as glass fibers and a synthetic resin.
The filament winding device winds a fiber bundle paid out from a head portion, around a mandrel. The head portion is composed of a hoop winding head that winds the fiber bundle around the mandrel in hoop form, and a helical winding head that winds the fiber bundle around the mandrel in helical form. For the hoop winding, the fiber bundle is wound around the mandrel substantially perpendicularly to an axial direction of the mandrel (FIG. 5A). For the helical winding, the fiber bundle is wound around the mandrel at a predetermined angle to the axial direction of the mandrel (FIGS. 5B and 5C).
The filament winding device winds the fiber bundle around the mandrel installed at a winding position. To accomplish this, the filament winding device installs the mandrel at the winding position to start winding, and after the winding is completed, discharges the mandrel from the winding position. The operation of installing and discharging the mandrel is manually performed by an operator. Moreover, at the beginning of the winding, the operator fixes a starting end to the mandrel, and at the end of the winding, cuts the fiber bundle from the mandrel.
Thus, the operator needs to perform various operations at the beginning and end of the winding. Disadvantageously, with an increase in the time required for operations performed by the operator and in the number of the operations, total production efficiency may decrease to increase costs.